There comes a time every spring when we look around and say to Mother Nature, “Slow down, what’s your hurry? Can we just relax for a week or two and enjoy this spring season?”
Mother Nature always replies with a firm no and tells us to get on with it. She has no use for procrastinators!
And so we must learn to relax, but be busy. To enjoy spring, yet get on with the garden. It’s not going to wait! The first tulips are blooming, after all, along with daffodils and all kinds of little tiny flowers whose names you can never quite remember until you look them up in a book.
Out in the lawn, the Glory of the Snow flowers, Chionodoxa, are blooming. As I walk around admiring them, I also keep telling them to slow down just a bit because they are really meant to be blooming at the end of next week, for Easter.
Several years ago, in 2018, Mother Nature did slow down spring for a bit with a giant snowstorm on March 24-25.
I don’t know of any gardener who wants to go through that kind of spring pause again.
Instead, we will all learn Mother Nature’s springtime lesson again. It is a two part lesson. Part one is this is no time for procrastination. There are seeds to sow, dead foliage to finally cut back, and soon lawns to mow. Time to get on with it!
Part two of Mother Nature’s springtime lesson is this is no time to be in a big hurry. There are flowers to see, soft breezes to inhale, and bird songs to enjoy. Take time to enjoy them!
Now that you know Mother Nature’s springtime lesson, plan and act accordingly.
Yes, as I was enjoying the marvelous warm air and sunshine this week, despite trying to remove thousands of hairy bittercress, in the back of my mind I worried about that an April deep freeze would bring a bad result. It happened a few years ago and resulted in no peaches or cherries that summer in western NY.
But I still enjoyed the sunshine, warm air and birds singing. Not the hairy bittercress though.
I love Scilla!
Yes, there is a dichotomy each time I’m in the garden: do I hurry and get a lot done before I’m overrun with weeds, or do I slow down and talk to the chinodoxa? It’s a hard balance indeed.